Category: Essays and Insights

The Corona Virus has spread worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports today, February 26, 2020 that 81,000 people have contracted Corona virus worldwide and 2,762 have died from it. Based on these numbers we can see that 2762/81000 or 0.03409 – about 1 in every 29.4 people infected have died.

Although it’s tough to get a protective mask now as they are generally out of stock, you can make your own n95 mask.

New York Times says keep 2-week supply of necessities on hand

Prepare for shortages of basic goods such as food, medicine and cleaning supplies. Keep at least 2 weeks of food on hand at all times. This afternoon I purchased a large bag of rice, dried beans, corn tortillas, canned tomatoes, fruit, peanut butter, jam, dried pasta and sauce. This food can keep fresh without refrigeration for a year or more and is fairly nutritious.

People in China have called the Corona outbreak a zombie apocalypse and it has wreaked havoc on the country that is a major supplier of manufactured goods and foods we take for granted. Corona has had major adverse effects on China’s economy. We need to take this under advisement to protect our own well being as this airborne viruswhich can be asymptomatic for more than 18 days continues to spread.

Improve community welfare – Act Now

In our own community we should make certain to work towards community welfare. This includes creating the resources we require to function locally in times of supply chain uncertainty. Let’s start now by creating a hotline for volunteer services and action groups including a community garden and kitchen. When we are as self-sufficient and proactive, we can achieve outstanding community wide results. If someone has an idea how to create an online interactive forum that would be super. Please send your suggestions to herkimerpost@gmail.com .

2018 leaves us with a legacy of climate change disasters on a planetary scale unparalleled in human history. Herkimer, NY is safer from climate disaster than most any place in our country and is thus a valuable resource in maintaining civilization. Rather than housing criminals as climate change escalates, it’s time for us to learn how to enable ourselves to be as constructive and self sustaining as possible while providing a haven to those fleeing disasters.

17% of the 22 homes on Pleasant Ave in Herkimer, NY are owned by Jay Smith who is the recorded owner of 27 Herkimer, NY properties. We have observed that 5 of these homes have been sheltering gang harassers, drug dealers and drug addicts. Mr. Smith’s tenants have destroyed our property, harassed and assaulted us during the nearly 5 years we have lived here. His tenants, our neighbors at 332 Pleasant Ave who are law abiding, just moved out replaced by known associates of his criminal tenants. Stanley Sykes, former Jay Smith tenant, admitted that some of these residents were members of the famous US gang, the Crips.

It’s interesting that at a time of excessive housing shortages, climate change migrations and massive economic losses, Mr. Smith considerately continues to rent to active criminals. There are no houses listed for sale on Pleasant Avenue in Herkimer, NY where we have recently seen an influx of skilled Amish tradesmen and out of town construction contractors working on home renovations.

Home owners and landlords everywhere can reduce homelessness and make money

Affordable housing with smaller units can help people live better adding to neighborhood stability while providing a decent income for landlords. Mr. Smith can easily rethink his position as a landlord and make a positive contribution to climate change survival for our community.

You can thwart irresponsible Republican government

Now that Republicans have control of the congress, senate, presidency and supreme court look forward to cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The number of homeless people in the US is rapidly increasing with loss of housing caused by climate change catastrophes. Less money for essentials like food shelter and healthcare means increased poverty, sickness and death.

1. Share your living space to increase your available income.

If you have a house or apartment consider renting out a room to guests. By sharing your home, you can create affordable housing for someone as well as an additional income for yourself. When you share your space, you’ll be cutting down on energy expenses too.

2. Reduce food costs by buying best value food in terms of both nutrition and price.

We are taking our own advice by limiting our budget to $400 a month for 2 adults. This goal is easy to achieve when you buy primary foods like milk, eggs, chicken, rice, cornmeal, fruits and vegetables rather than processed foods like TV dinners, fast food and soft drinks. Cooking meals for everyone in your household, rather than foraging independently can lower costs and increase a sense of friendship in your home.

3. Create your own financial independence.

If you share a room with someone and budget your food wisely, total living expense can be little as low $450 a month per person. Even if you work half time, you should be able to save at least $5000 in a single year. If you were to get together with some other people, you would be able to jointly purchase an inexpensive home or some camping land to create your own mortgage and rent-free housing, thus achieving a degree of financial independence that will continue to reward you.

4. Grow your own food.

When you share a home with others you can grow your own food too. I have noticed that many fruits and vegetables cost as much as chicken breast per pound. It’s easy to grow tomatoes, lettuce, beans, squash and much more in your own yard.

5. Teach yourself new skills and profit from them.

You can learn some basic skills that are useful to many people. Skills like carpentry, simple plumbing, fence construction and deck building are often in demand. When you have these and other skills you can find work or trade your services for things you need. It doesn’t take much to turn your economic constraints into economic advantages when you make the most of resources you have been taking for granted!

6. Vote for someone who cares about your well-being!

Make sure that you vote Democrat in the upcoming elections Tuesday November 6, 2018 if you want to have health care and to collect the social security benefits you pay for when you work! Our current national elected officials feel that it’s fine for wealthy people to pay no taxes and to let others go without healthcare and retirement benefits they have paid for their entire working lives.

In our harsh political and environmental climate, life can rapidly become more difficult. You can make your life head in a better direction by taking measures that are easily within your ability to achieve.

About 2 years ago the bridge near the farm pond at HCC washed away. Re-engineering of the flood site is now complete. The dirt road has been replaced by a sturdy concrete foot bridge. Freshly landscaped, 3 pond-side picnic tables invite visitors to linger and appreciate sounds, scents and views. There is also a semi-circle of large rocks at the water’s edge offering somewhat comfortable seating to those who enjoy nature’s beauty. Herkimer Community College’s new flood controlled picnic area inspires us to optimize our resources.

Potential music barn next year?

If you are walking towards the pond from HCC, you’ll see an open barn on the right. Inside there is a large flatbed trailer doing absolutely nothing. I imagine that this might be a fun project for some students. It would be fairly easy to re-purpose the trailer as a concession on wheels offering healthy snacks to visitors. Plenty of space remains in the barn for some benches once the trailer is outside. This underutilized yet picturesque space might become an impromptu meeting and music spot which all could enjoy. The proceeds from food sales could help fund new entrepreneurial projects on campus. Students can learn how to create and operate a business and acquire practical skills like carpentry and cooking.

Making the most of time and place

If you see a resource sitting idle imagine what you can do with it. In many cases it can become an amazing way to learn, earn and enjoy a creative experience.

Our planet has become very challenging to live on and yet it is still the best place to live. It’s upon us to provide food and shelter in these times of climate instability. Intelligent social and geoengineering will help us steer out of the dangerous waters we now live in.

For the past 70 years we have participated in a climate of consumerism and wastefulness. We have incurred ridiculous debts and become job slaves to feed mortgages and the cost of higher education. Many have already found healthy ways to avoid this horror – building their own inexpensive homes and growing their own food. Food and shelter for all are the key building blocks that will stabilize the economy and diminish the spread of disease. When we all work towards the goal of food and shelter success is well within our reach.

Thinking different

Millions of people are participating in the micro homes movement. Learning to build your own sustainable microhome is well within your reach. You can learn how to do this on youtube.com. When you build your own home, it means no rent and no mortgage.

Building is a joy for musician, cartoonist and micro home artist Derek Deek Diedricksen. Even stating with a simple set of skills, you can use your imagination and create wondrous living spaces.

Using salvaged and reclaimed materials including pallet wood you can build your own shelter on camping land or in someone’s back yard for as little as $300.

Using techniques such as companion planting and permaculture you can grow much of your own food including fish farming.

Herkimer Post views surge driven by YouTube and Facebook

In 2017, a sudden surge in new readers caused Herkimer Post views to soar. Those stats follow below. First we’d like to celebrate our most successful article ever, with a big tip of the hat to Facebook News Feed, which picked up our 12/11/17 article Herkimer Poison Gas Attacks Fade – Good News, Bad News . The posting itself on that day alone triggered 591 views of our articles, featuring some of Herkimer’s core of coddled criminals.

YouTube viewers watched agog as 7,119 minutes of Herkimer street assaults, elder abuse, poison gas attacks and a street gang rampage rolled across their screens. Our videos received one Like, and 35 Dislikes. (The latter are about the number of estimated drug dealers and child traffickers and exploiters within a two-block area of our Pleasant Avenue home. )

Our Herkimer crime YouTube channel is now self-sustaining, with the majority of viewers coming via referral from YouTube affiliated sites or from previews embedded in our videos. If the Herkimer Post vanished today, our viewership would continue to soar, so great is the human fascination with the grotesque.

Herkimer’s iconic Curtis Cool’s antics are responsible for about 50% of all our Herkimer crime video views. Assaults and trafficking by the Stanley Sykes gang, Joyce Barton and Herkimer’s Historic Crack House Keeper account for most of the rest. (The Sykes’ gang is trending nicely. ) With Facebook News now taking an interest in our blog, we hope the influx of new readers and viewers will continue to send the Herkimer Post soaring as we offer fresh, newsworthy Herkimer crime insights.

Herkimer Grows Camera Shy

There’s been a concerted effort by the Herkimer Police and Herkimer’s -legacy criminals to avoid creating arrest-worthy, video-worthy incidents. But only when the Sykes’s and the Bartons and their trafficking are gone from Herkimer’s Pleasant Avenue will the street become fully habitable again and real estate salable.
The waves of poison gas attacks of last year have settled into a war of attrition, with snipers surrounding us; executing pesticide attacks from hand foggers whenever we venture out. The gas of course rolls on down the street over law abiding people and pets.

Taking a property off of the market and then renting it to criminals who spray poisons is not a winning sales strategy.

A ‘Speak no evil’ philosophy empowered this criminal stronghold. While Justice Brandeis has given effective advice – “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. As Herkimer Post views surge, we provide this sunlight.

On February 6, 2018 one of the most significant events in human history took place with the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which sent a Tesla vehicle on a trajectory towards Mars. The low cost and reusability of the Falcon Heavy space shuttle heralds an age of inexpensive space flight and colonization potential. Tuesday’s mission cost $90 million, $15 million less than New York City’s 2018 budget for student physical education.

It seems inexpensive and easy. So much so, that it would not be surprising to see a colony on Mars ten years from now. SpaceX is a corporation which constructed the rockets used in yesterday’s launch, with $0 from the US or any other government. It’s exciting to see how this innovative technology can help us place useful platforms in space near earth inexpensively, helping improve transportation, exploration, telecommunications, weather monitoring, and potentially, weather control.

With all the horrible weather events which have taken place this last year, it’s a relief to see this brilliant technology move humanity forward, realizing new potential which only moments ago was science fiction. The SpaceX launch heralds a new age where space travel will be a part of many of our lives.

Climate will keep getting more erratic, surprising us with rising oceans, loss of coastal cities and destruction of crops. This can easily lead to food insecurity and mass migrations. The forces that drive a solution lie with us just as much as with experts, corporations and governments – if not more so.

What can we do? We can bring food security to our own communities. How much will this cost? Not a whole lot. When we grow local food indoors and year-round, we can make a difference between starvation, chaos, disease, mass migration and warfare on the one hand and survival on the other. Having enough food to eat is a major stabilizer that can be the difference between maintaining our civilization and letting chaos rain.

It’s easy to accomplish this powerful goal

We can no longer rely on vast international supply chains to bring us the resources we need from afar. Have you checked on the availability and cost of plywood recently? Let’s be pioneers in our own communities by growing food in our schools, basements and underused commercial and industrial buildings. We can do this now.

Important self-taught inventors who did not complete elementary school

In the left photo is Thomas Edison, whose formal education ended after 3 months, discouraged by his teacher who said he was not very smart. In the right photo is Pay Bok Sing, an innovative seafood farmer who has a fourth-grade education. Edison is most famous for his invention of the incandescent light bulb, the mainstay of lighting for over a century. He also invented the phonograph and made the very first movies.

Pay Bok Sing, like Edison is self-educated. His schooling ended in 4th grade. With the help of his own curiosity and YouTube, he taught himself how to create ocean water for inland seafood farming and feed for his fish crop. His inventions may become the foundation of sustainable, local based farming, providing secure food in the communities where we live.

Teaching ourselves we can all become inventors

In the US, public education often succeeds in creating endless crops of students who think they hate learning, demotivated by teachers who limit their intellectual exploration rather than encourage creative thought. But were students to partake of the enormous potential provided by free online learning through YouTube and other web channels, they could explore their own abilities, and be inventors and thought leaders. In fact, farming in our own homes and back yards can provide all of us with inexpensive laboratories for learning about food science–a science that can help feed people in times of climate uncertainty and economic instability.

There’s no need to take expensive courses. Just follow some basic instruction from YouTube and learn how to raise fish in your basement and tomatoes and lettuce in your own kitchen. The more you learn, the more you’ll be able to discover for yourself. Each and every one of us can be an inventor!

When measuring the criteria of a democracy against the reforms made during the Arab Spring, it is evident that most of the participating nations did not produce long meaningful achievements. The revolts were by driven inequality, corrupt governments, and abusive governmental security forces. In most cases dictatorships were strengthened and the revolts failed.

The 2011 Arab Spring and ensuing events raised important political reform issues. Citizenship rights were one area of concern. Failing to achieve democracy in all North African and South West Asian participating countries except for Tunisia, a less challenging goal has been sought. This is the increased involvement of citizens in decision making in areas that affects them directly (Alessandri, Balfour, Bouchet & Youngs, 2016).

The EUSPRING research project has discussed issues surrounding rights and citizenship with representatives from Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. The monarchy of Morocco has codified a new constitution that is more liberal, but it falls short of citizen expectations. Egypt has fallen into a repressive regime far worse than that of Mubarak and this has led to numerous protests. While Tunisia’s democracy is fragile, this country is the only one which has achieved democracy (Alessandri, E., Balfour, R., Bouchet, N. & Youngs, R. 2016).

Success vs Failure in Achieving Democratic Rights

How has Tunisia succeeded in achieving democratic rights while other SW Asian and North African countries have failed? In an Al Arabiya news interview with Tunisian President Beji Casid Essebsi discussed how his country achieved results and prevented bloodshed unlike the others. He called the term “Arab Spring” a western invention and described his country as having a “Tunisian Spring” because Tunisia has achieved true democracy. While Tunisia has rejected political Islam, there is danger of destabilization due to terrorism. Sleeper cells exist because they attract the unemployed and poverty stricken and are exploited by terrorist organizations. The stabilizing countermeasures are more freedom for everyone including women, economic development and education (Al Arabiya, 2016).

In Tunisia, Arab Spring resulted in the first free election held since the county’s independence in 1957. Compromise is the essential factor that secured the nation’s stabilization. In December 2013, unrest soared after the assassination of leftist leader Mohamed Brahmi. Four institutions called a quartet negotiated a new constitution earning them the Nobel Peace Prize (Malsin, 2015). The participants belonged to the Tunisian Human Rights League, the Tunisian General Labour Union, Tunisian Order of Lawyers and the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (Sharma, 2015).

In 2015, the quartet of workers, employers, activists and lawyers were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This highly functional group served as a platform for dialog and political compromise between the Tunisian Islamists in the existing government, opposition and secular groups. Effective compromise is what drove the county’s success in creating a democracy and avoiding instability, violence and continuation of dictatorships (Faiola, 2015). The Tunisian Quartet competed for the prize in a group of 273 contenders including Pope Francis and Angela Merkel (Sharma, 2015).

While Tunisia’s success is impressive, analysts have advised that the underlying causes of the revolt have not been resolved despite implementation of a procedural democracy. Government corruption, inequality and abuses of governmental security forces are still in play. The Director of Human Rights Watch Tunisia, Amna Guellali called this “a double-faced situation” including political progress and continuing civil liberties issues (Malsin, 2015).

Tunisians have a new constitution which defines guaranteed human rights, democratic election of a new parliament and president, and participation in civil society groups which did not exist before. Government authorities are improving their accountability with a commission intended to address past human rights violations, although it has little power (Amnesty International, 2016).

In Egypt, political instability is a function of a floundering economy with an inflation rate of over 15%. In 2016 new laws resulted in a devaluation of the pound, introduction of a VAT and frozen government salaries. Egypt is considered to have a dysfunctional economy where more than 25% of the people live below the poverty line. Even so, many people must be living above the means of the economy because there is a large workforce of low earners, few exports and many imports. The current rate of subsidy is $1.5 billion (Hessler, 2017). The missing economic imbalance factor may be US subsidies which have been given to Egypt since the 1979 peace treaty with Israel which ended 30 years of hostilities (IMFA, 1979).

During the 2011 uprising in Egypt, 800 protesters were killed and thousands were injured by Mubarik’s security forces. On June 30, 2012, Mohamad Morsi became the first president ever elected by voters. He was kicked out of office one year later in July 2013. The army conducted reprisals against Morsi and his supporters. Army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president in May 2014. The new government has been accused of committing torture, unfair mass trials and unwillingness to investigate unlawful deaths. They have also been accused of restricting or shutting down civil society groups and human rights organizations (Amnesty International, 2016). With the upcoming 2018 elections, there is little to be cheerful about. In an interview with Robert Siegel of Northeast Public Radio, Khaled Dawoud, deputy editor of Al Ahram weekly, described how anti-terrorism law in Egypt restricts the media (NPR, 2015).

While there have been some slight improvements, corruption and secrecy continue to coexist unabated as if there had never been an Arab Spring. Even in Tunisia, the only official success story, this is also the case. As in Egypt, there have been restrictions on freedom of expression. Terrorism is used as an excuse for putting ugly limits on freedom of speech. Independent media reporting has been restricted and the power of security forces to arrest, detain and torture has increased. Prisoners can be detained for 15 days without access to contacting the outside. There has been excessive use of force against protesters. People are terrified and have become reluctant to report human rights violations (Amnesty International, 2016).

In Libya Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. Successive governments failed to control armed groups allowing them to gain power and fill a vacuum created by Gaddafi’s overthrow. In 2014 there were multiple conflicts between armed groups most of which committed war crimes and abuses of human rights without any punishment. Government became dysfunctional with separate factions following independent agendas. Hostage taking and other human rights violations resulted in a need of humanitarian assistance for 2.5 million people (Amnesty International, 2016).

Syria has an oppressive and brutal government. The Syrian Center for Policy Research reported 470,000 deaths as of 2016. There are over one million internally displaced people in country and nearly 5 million seeking refuge in other nations. Since 2011, over 100,000 people have disappeared and most of these disappearances are attributed to the government. Torture is commonplace. ISIS is responsible for widespread kidnapping, execution. attacks against civilians, use of child soldiers and preventing humanitarian aid (Human Rights Watch, 2017).

In Yemen, attempted president for life Ali Saleh was ousted from office early in 2014.

Later that year, Shi’a Muslim forces made President Hadi and his government resign. The Huthis took control and have committed war crimes, human rights abuses and used lethal forces against civilians. Counter forces have also committed human rights violations. The Islamic State armed group has attacked Shi’a mosques, killing civilians (Amnesty International, 2016).

Conclusion

The Economist called the Arab Spring the Arab Winter (The Economist, 2016) for good reason. Arab Spring participants Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria do not have fully functional democratic governments today. Tunisia has the only stable democracy and has a constitution. Yet the government has eased on freedom of speech in reaction to terrorist activities. Egypt has a government with a democratically elected president that is relatively stable mostly due to financial contributions from the US. Yet freedom of speech and freedom of press are nonexistent. The percentage of voters has been under 50% indicating lack of fair play and bias. Syria has a brutal and unstable government with millions of its population displaced, most in foreign countries. Libya and Yemen are in anarchy.